Protecting your
garden investment

Identifying
Rabbits
of North America

Innocent eyes, soft furs
and billowy tails
characterize the many
species of rabbits and hares found across North
America. But the warm-and-fuzzy pictures painted
by what appears to be nature’s most gentle
wildlife are frequently blurred when the
flop-eared lagomorphs become pests, foraging and
shredding homeowners’ prized shrubs, gardens and
flowerbeds. In fact, it’s been said that it’s
easier to identify what’s not eaten by rabbits
than what is!

Cottontails,
snowshoes and jackrabbits are the
common names for members of the family
Leporidae, which includes a number of
subspecies. Both hares and rabbits are included in
this family of small mammals that are distributed
around the world, but “rabbit” is used
interchangeably to describe these prolific
breeders.
Adult males, called bucks, fight one another with
their teeth when they court the same females,
which are known as does.
Both species bear four to eight
litters a year, with three to eight young in each
litter.
On average, 15 percent of the young survive their
first year.

Because of their high productivity rate,
rabbits are an important link in the food
chain and are principle prey for many species.
It is also a popular game species throughout
its range.
Rabbits of all species live about 10 years.
They weigh from about 2 pounds to 13 pounds
and attain a length of about 12 to 28 inches.
They prefer to live in regions where

North American
Rabbits& Hares

Arctic Hare

Tundra Hare

Snowshoe Hare

European Hare

Whitetail Jackrabbit

Antelope Jackrabbit

Blacktail Jackrabbit

Eastern Cottontail

Mountain Cottontail

New England Cottontail

Desert Cottontail

Brush Rabbit

Marsh Rabbit

Swamp Rabbit

Pygmy Rabbit

the soil is loose and dry, and where brushwood
offers
shelter.
Rabbits are valued as game by hunters, as food
and
for their fur, but they often are pests to
farmers whose trees and crops they destroy.

Cottontails

The
primary wild rabbit of North America is the
cottontail, of the genus Sylvilagus, and of
which there are two species – the New England or
Appalachian cottontail, and the eastern
cottontail. Its name is derived from the white
undersurface of its short tail, which resembles a
puff of cotton. The cottontail is noted for
remaining motionless to avoid notice when it
senses danger. The rabbit, which swims and
includes among its cousins the so-called
“cane-brake”, “marsh” or “swamp” rabbit of the
Southern wetlands, also evades enemies by plunging
into lakes or streams.

Combined, the cottontails range east of the Rocky
Mountains from southern Canada south to eastern
Mexico and points south. Another population is
found in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The
eastern cottontail is more abundant and is
expanding its range, while the New England
cottontail's range is diminishing.

The cottontail rabbit is a somewhat stocky animal
with large hind feet, long ears, and a short,
fluffy tail that resembles a cotton ball. Its
long, coarse coat varies in color from
reddish-brown to a black or grayish-brown. The
underparts are white. The New England cottontail
and the eastern cottontail are almost identical in
appearance, except for a slight variation in
color. About half of the eastern cottontail
population show a white, star-like shape on the
forehead while none of the New England cottontails
exhibit this trait.

Cottontails have very keen sight and hearing. When
danger is sensed, the animal will usually freeze
in place until the danger has passed, but they
will flush readily if approached too closely.
Rabbits normally move slowly in short hops or
jumps, but when frightened they can achieve speeds
up to 18 miles per hour over a short distance.
They often zigzag to confuse a pursuing predator.

Cottontails prefer to live and forage among the
edges of open fields and meadows, areas of dense
high grass, in wood thickets, along fencerows,
forest edges and along the borders of marshy
areas.
Dense forests and thickets attract cottontails at
high elevations, especially birch/red maple
forests, hemlock and rhododendron areas within
oak-hickory forests, blueberries, mountain laurel
and coniferous forests. It has been cited, too,
that they prefer 6- to 7-year-old clearcuts and
old overgrown farmsteads and pockets of
heath-conifer habitat.

It
is largely nocturnal, active
from early evening to late morning. In
summer, cottontails feed almost entirely on tender
grasses and herbs; crops such as peas, beans, and
lettuce are also eaten. In winter, bark, twigs and
the buds of shrubs and young trees are eaten.

Snowshoes

The
varying hare -- Lepus americanus -- known
popularly as the snowshoe rabbit, is distributed
widely throughout North America, from throughout
Canada, extending south along the Rockies and into
the southern Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee,
but not into the Great Smoky Mountains.

Four subspecies of snowshoes are recognized among
a common abundance of animals in good habitat.
However, numbers of snowshoes are decreasing in
areas of deforestation and increased white-tailed
deer populations, which out-compete the snowshoe
for many foods both animals prefer. It is a forest
species, never far from dense woods including
swamps and thickets. It is often found in dense
second-growth forests of beech, birch, maple and
young spruce. Rhododendron and mountain laurel
thickets are its habitat in the southern
mountains.

Snowshoes are so named because of its large rear
feet, the toes of which can spread out to act like
snowshoes. Their feet also have fur on the bottom,
which protects them from the cold and gives them
traction in the snow. During wintertime, the large
track prints are conspicuous. The hind foot print
is in front of the front foot print.

In summer, the hare’s coat is is rusty, grayish
brown to dark brown in color; however the animal’s
fur grows in wintertime -- except for a black
edging on the ear tips -- lending it camouflage to
thwart its predators. The change sometimes occurs
in patchwork fashion and generally requires about
two months, completed about the same time the
ground is covered with lasting snow. In the Coast
Range the winter color may change only to a
patchwork of brown and white or it may not change
at all.

The snowshoe hare is a strict vegetarian. It is
usually active at night and in the early morning,
when it feeds on juicy green plants and grass in
summer, when among its preferred foods include the
southern highbush cranberry,. During winter it is
dependent mostly on shrubs and trees and is fond
of aspen, willow, alder and maple. It eats the
bark, twigs and often the needles of conifers,
including fir, cedar, hemlock, spruce and

Jackrabbits

Another
hare, Lepus californicus, known as the
jackrabbit, is found in the western parts of the
United States and Canada. Known for its speed,
both white-tailed and black-tailed jackrabbits can
run up to 45 miles per hour and can bound 15 to 20
feet in a single jump. Because this species
competes with grazing animals for food, livestock
owners in the western US have undertaken great
drives to reduce the hare population, which has
been estimated to be as high as 8,000 per square
mile. Jackrabbits may carry tularemia, a
bacterial disease that can be fatal to humans.

Long ears – as much as 5 inches long -- big feet,
long hind legs and brushy tails characterize the
jackrabbit. Its fur is typically a dark buffed
color or silver that is peppered with black. A
prominent black stripe runs from its rump to the
top of its tail. Its distinctive long ears, which
are tipped with black, helps keep them cool as
blood passes into their ears and is cooled by the
breeze before passing into other parts of their
bodies. The soles of a jackrabbit's feet are
covered with fur. This cushions their feet on hard
ground and insulates them from the scorching heat
of the desert sand. The jackrabbit's eyes are
situated on the sides of its head, giving it
all-around vision that enables it to spot danger
coming from any direction.

Jackrabbits live in the extreme environments of
the desert, high plains and chaparral, where
temperatures are hot during the day and cold at
night, and there isn't a lot of rain. They can be
found on brushlands, prairies, pasturelands and
meadows -- open areas where they can see predators
coming. An individual jackrabbit ranges across
about 10 acres.

Under the cover of darkness – from dusk to dawn –
jackrabbits forage with relative security but they
always seem to be on their guard. Alert to their
surroundings and watchful of potential threats,
they rely on their speed to elude predators, and,
if they are lucky enough to escape, they will
flash the white underside of their tail to alert
other jackrabbits in the area.

Jackrabbits are strict vegetarians. During the
spring and summer, they feed on clover, alfalfa
and other abundant greens. During the lean fall
and winter months, they subsist on woody and dried
vegetation. They will also eat sagebrush and
cacti. Jackrabbits rarely have to drink, ingesting
most of their water from the plants they eat.
Fifteen jackrabbits can eat as much as one
full-grown cow in one day. Occasionally, they raid
crops and flowerbeds and cause extensive damage.

Jackrabbits are herbivores. They leave their
resting spots at dusk to feed on tough grasses,
leaves, and twigs. They will also eat sagebrush
and cacti. They only come out at night to feed.
Fifteen jackrabbits can eat as much as one
full-grown cow in one day. Occasionally, they raid
crops and cause extensive damage.

Other protective adaptations include keen senses
of smell, eyesight, and hearing. And they depend
heavily on shrubs such as sagebrush for protective
cover. Jackrabbits are the principal prey of
golden eagles and are an important food source for
coyotes, common ravens, the great horned owl,
long-eared owl, barn owl, ferruginous hawk,
Swainson’s hawk and red-tailed hawk. Humans, too,
are a predator of jackrabbit.